Romans 8:5-39
When Corrie and I were engaged, we used to go golfing a lot in Saskatchewan. We enjoyed it, but I wasn’t that great. I obviously hit enough nice balls to make me want to keep playing the game, but overall when you look at my records, they weren’t that impressive!
But we did enjoy it. The lush, green fairways, the trees swaying in the breeze, and of course, me throwing my golf club farther than I actually managed to hit the ball itself.
I just had a few minor problems with my game. One was my ball. It just refused to go the right way! Sometimes it would tease me and sail beautifully straight through the air, heading directly for the flag at the end. But then, suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, it would careen off to the side and disappear into the woods. Why this happened, I just never knew. Sometimes it wasn’t even nice enough to get up into the air at all. It would just bounce along the ground for a few meters and then die. All that effort, all those strange bodily contortions, all for naught. And then that crazy little white ball would sit there, taunting, laughing. Or may that was my fellow golfers, but nonetheless it was frustrating.
My ball had a major problem. It just didn’t have a sense of direction at all. It had no idea where it was supposed to be going! It just went wherever the wind took it, or, worse, however my club happened to strike it at the time. And, more often than not, that was not accurate.
Of course, you could try and tell me that it wasn’t my ball’s fault. That it had no choice in the matter. But I know better. That deviant little white ball simply had no idea what the goal was, and as such it was susceptible to any slight leaning or directional change.
This example of the golf ball is actually pretty accurate for our lives. So many things in our life cause us to veer off track. Maybe the home you grew up in was tough. Your parents were hard on you, or maybe you grew up in a split home, or with a single parent, or maybe an absentee parent. Whatever the case, your family and your upbringing, aka the golf club, sent you, the ball, veering off your intended course. Right from the start, right off the tee, you seemingly didn’t stand a chance.
Then, added to that misaligned beginning come the crosswinds of adversity. Maybe there were struggles in school growing up, hard times financially, a loss of a friend or family member. Life’s winds blew fast and harsh, causing what was already a rough start, or maybe even a start that seemed OK at first, veer wildly off course. And so you take a bad hook into the woods, not even close to the green and the flag at the end of the fairway.
And you become disillusioned.
As you sit in the woods, buried in the grass and brush, you become disillusioned with life. Questions begin forming in your head. Why are you here? What could possibly be the purpose of life? And, like everyone else, you try to get yourself out of those woods. You attend church. Maybe you go to Bible School, or lead Bible studies in your homes. But the fact still remains that you are lost and on your own. Every now and then the sun peaks through the trees to give you a ray of hope, but as soon as it comes, it is gone again.
And you are stuck. Caught in the forest of your sins, your failures and your shortcomings. And, for many of us, we soon realize that we will never get out of this forest on our own.
Let’s read through the passage today that I want to speak about.
Romans 8
Life through the Spirit
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I’ve been reading a book about business lately (I know, sounds quite boring but I’m actually enjoying it to be honest). While I’m not going to go into details of the book itself, one part of it really stuck out to me. Of course, I think it’s the main point of the book so it should stick out to me. Anyways, one basic statement they made was that any action that leads a company closer to its goal is a productive action, whereas any action that leads a company away from its goal is counter-productive. Pretty basic, really. However, if a person doesn’t understand the goal then how does he or she know if what they’re doing is productive or counter-productive? The only way anyone can know this is by knowing the goal.
As a Christian, as a son or daughter of God, do you know the goal that God has for you? Do you know whether your day-to-day activities are actually productive or counter-productive? If you don’t know the goal, you can’t know the answer to that question.
The goal for all of us is largely the same. It is written throughout the scriptures, it is repeated by multiple authors. In verse 29 and chapter 8 of Romans we read that God predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Throughout the New Testament we see similar mentions of this goal. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read that “we all …are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.” Paul also refers to the Galatians in Galatians 4:9 by stating “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…” And also in Ephesians 4:11-15 we read “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
You see, without a knowledge of this goal, without a true understanding of this purpose, we all end up lost and alone in the woods. Try as you might, you will never find your way out of the woods and onto the green.
Worse than not knowing the goal, is knowing the goal but not knowing how it get there. You may know that you want to get to the green, to find that flag, but how do you get there? We see throughout scripture that God’s intention for our lives as his children is to become like Christ. But how?
Romans 8 doesn’t just reveal God’s intention for us, but also the directions. And those directions are through the Holy Spirit. By living according to the Spirit. The Spirit is in our lives, God has built in a GPS directing us how to be more and more like Christ every day.
God knew we would fail. So he sent his Son to die on this earth as a man so that we would be forgiven. But that wasn’t all. God also knew that after our failures, we would need help to find our way back, to become more Christ-like. And so he then gave us his Holy Spirit.
So how do we tap into this resource? How do we use the Holy Spirit within us to develop ourselves to become more Christ-like? How do we turn on this GPS to give us our sorely needed directions?
Let’s read again the first part of the passage we read earlier (read vs 5-17 again).
So, living by the Spirit means we put to death the misdeeds of the body. What are these misdeeds, then? And how do we learn about them, so we can put them to death?
By learning more about Christ.
If we are to live by the Spirit, and if we are to become Christ-like, if that is our goal then it would make sense that we need to focus on learning about Christ himself.
Coming to Church is a great step. Attending Bible studies also helps us to learn. Daily devotions, constant prayer, spending time with God. As I said earlier, any action that leads you towards your goal is productive. Any action that takes you further away is counter-productive.
Does this mean that doing things like soccer, work, home renovations or whatever is counter-productive? Only if those things take you further from your goal. If you play soccer or hockey or golf, and yet find yourself falling further from your goal of becoming more Christ-like, then playing in that sport is counter-productive and needs to be ‘put to death’. If renovating your house is putting a division between you and your family, if it is taking away time that you should be spending with God, then it is counter-productive.
The Spirit convicts us. As you go about your daily activities, if the Spirit is convicting you of an action that is taking your further from your goal of becoming Christ-like, then stop. We should be ever working towards becoming more Christ-like, and no one has time in their lives to be doing anything but what brings us closer to that goal. Examine your life. What misdeeds are you doing that are taking you further from this goal?
God wants to use the Holy Spirit as the club that guides us out of the forest and back onto the fairway.
Are you confused as to what direction your life needs to take? Turn on the GPS within you that is the Holy Spirit. Let him convict you of your actions that are taking you further from his goal for our lives.
